IN YOUR OPINION

Letters to the Editor for April 4, 2013

Published: Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 6:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 10:34 p.m.

A failed war

Recently the Star-Banner ran a survey on the Iraq war. Respondents were given three choices: 1) The war was completely necessary; 2) Necessary but took too long; or 3) It was a monumental failure. Sadly, only 37 percent of respondents chose the correct answer: that the war was a terrible failure.

Without a doubt the Iraq war was a huge mistake. The reason given for the war — Iraqi weapons of mass destruction — turned out not to be true. This wasn’t a simple mistake of intelligence, this was an outright lie.

Former President George W. Bush told the American people the war would cost between $50 billion and $60 billion. Former Vice President Dick Cheney told us that Iraq’s oil money would pay for the war. These were also outright lies.

Thankfully, this misguided war has been brought to an end, but what about the costs? As of 2013, the Cost of War Project estimates the war has cost $1.7 trillion. That doesn’t factor in future costs of veterans’ health care, which push the total to more than $2.1 trillion. And none of these financial costs includes the human cost. Thousands of our best and brightest young men and women lost their lives. Still many more lost their limbs and their minds.

War is only justified to protect our nation, its people and our vital interests. The Iraq war did not meet that standard. It was an unnecessary war that cost us dearly in blood and treasure. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Ward Hegock

Silver Springs Shores

Abandoned by his government

Saeed Abedini is a 32-year-old, Iranian-born naturalized American citizen who was arrested while in Iran visiting his family and working to build an orphanage. He was sentenced to Iran’s notorious Evin prison in January for what was legal in 2001-05 when he was sharing his Christian faith with other Iranians.

When his work as a Christian pastor became illegal in 2005, Abedini moved to the United States with his American wife and became a U.S. citizen. Over the following years he returned to the country of his birth nine times to visit his family and build an orphanage, but did not violate Iranian law by sharing his faith.

Abedini’s adopted government has been nearly silent, unwilling to press Iran for his release. The State Department told his wife, Naghmeh, they could do nothing and declined to attend a congressional hearing on the matter March 15. Abedini has been abandoned by his government.

Nearly all major news outlets have ignored Saeed’s arrest and conviction as well.

It’s up to Abedini’s fellow citizens to be his voice, to convince his adopted government to speak out and demand his release and his return to his wife and two small children. Be Abedini’s voice and go to SaveSaeed.org to join the more than 545,000 others who have signed the petition, then write your representatives.

Stephen Montgomery

Dunnellon

Amendment 11 challenge

I stood up for Amendment 11 on Feb. 19. I failed! However, I am not finished.

I will run for county commissioner of District 3, current Commissioner Stan McClain’s seat, in 2016. Remember Stan’s statement: “Amendment 11 is not fair for everyone else.”

The $162,000 that our senior citizens would have saved on their tax bills would have stayed in this county. Every time that money changed hands, it would have created jobs that everyone would have benefited from.

I was born, raised and educated in Marion County and it is my hope that we help all citizens of this great county.

James Bowden

Ocala

Not about skin color

The writer of the letter “Letters don’t reflect who we really are” (March 28) insults the people in the Ocala area by referring to them as “mentally small people.”

He then goes on to say that folks hate President Obama because he is black. Why is the race card used as soon as someone disagrees with the president’s failed policies?

Since he took office, there has been a 70 percent increase in the number of food stamp recipients, the national debt has increased by $7 trillion, our daily deficit is $3.2 billion and gas prices have doubled.

His out-of-control spending, his positions on abortion and same-sex marriage and his failure to establish working relationships with the Congress are a few issues that I strongly disagree with. Recently, while on a liberal website, I raised a concern about these issues and was instantly labeled as intolerant, a racist and a bigot.

I found this quite amusing since I have a Japanese grandson, a Chinese granddaughter, and a bi-racial great-grandson. I also found those same individuals who labeled me have referred to Allen West, Dr. Carson, Condoleezza Rice and Herman Caine with names that I would be ashamed to repeat.

I’m sorry, but it is not about the president’s skin color; it’s about his inability to perform the duties of the POTUS.

Bob Waas

Ocala

Nothing new

Don’t believe for a moment that the “new platform” the GOP will try to devise to win the next election. They are who they are.

The new GOP, with their deep-seeded ideology, will not change. They are building their platform on a deck of cards. Their distaste for the disadvantaged, immigrants, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, their favoritism of deregulation, to the detriment of our environment in favor of corporations to be free to take risks in order to make more and more money.

At their recent CPAC, they voted Rand Paul over Marco Rubio and gave Sarah Palin the platform to voice such hate and disrespect for our president. Enough said.

Mary Johnson

Ocala

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